Organisation beyond the purview of RTI Act to provide the information in public interest

30 Apr, 2013

Background

The appellant was a Major in the army and claimed that his Liquor Card had been “hot listed” by URC 19 JAK Rifles. He also claimed that he stays at Nasik (Maharashtra) and has never visited the location of URC 19 JAK Rifles and therefore hot listing of his Liquor Card is not understandable. Later, he filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the 19 JAK Rifles seeking information regarding excess drawl of liquor by him from URC 19 JAK Rifles etc. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed him that the requested information could not be supplied as the URCs did not fall under the domain of the RTI Act.

View of CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that URCs are not public authorities under the RTI Act. However, the CIC noted that if the version of the appellant is correct then it is straightway a case of fraud which needs to be exposed and it would be in the larger public interest. The CIC directed the public authority to provide a copy of Station order for drawl of liquor from URC along with the month, date, description and quantity wise details of liquor drawn by the officer from the URC for the prescribed time period. The CIC also directed to provide the copies of the bills issued to the officer (both Grocery and Liquor).